Flood resilience and risk management
Floods, the most frequent and costly natural disaster, cause devastating effects to human health, the environment and economies.
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Flood risk will worsen as rainfall intensifies and sea levels rise due to climate change. Urbanisation and population growth mean more lives and assets are threatened.
Arup offers a fully multidisciplinary service, helping government agencies, infrastructure operators, and developers to produce solutions that safeguard communities, enhance environmental resilience and benefit both people and nature. We provide technical and advisory services across every dimension of flood risk management.
Building resilience
Looking to longer-term protection, we also help communities to prepare for anticipated flood risks and achieve greater resilience. This is a complex task that combines rigorous local climate and environmental analysis, backed with stakeholder engagement and thoughtful design development. We help regions to become prepared for every element of the flood threat, from physical barriers to warning systems and recovery planning. We also prioritise the use of nature-based flood defences wherever possible, in order to ensure a low emission solution to the problem.
The Leeds Phase 1 Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS) is one of the UK’s largest flood defence projects and the first in the country to use moveable weirs as a pioneering solution to flooding.
We developed an alternative proposal more in keeping with the city’s character and landscape. We focused on reducing the obstructions that were causing water levels to rise, meaning we could significantly reduce the visual impact of the flood measures on a smaller budget whilst enhancing conservation of the local environment.
Explore
Find out more about our how services across the water market can support you:
Projects
Explore more water projects

Creating cool and green streets with spatial data
Strategic Prioritisation Map for Water Sensitive Urban Design, Australia

Promoting climate resilient flood defence and development through nature-based solutions
Lower Darent Riverside Strategy, United Kingdom

Wetland habitat restoration at a landscape scale
Great North Fen – Restoring the Durham Carrs, United Kingdom

Innovative energy storage powers Northern Ireland Water’s decarbonisation journey
Northern Ireland Water BESS, United Kingdom
Flooding and stormwater
At Arup, we provide integrated and truly sustainable solutions to help developers, local authorities, government agencies, and infrastructure operators to understand and manage flood risks.
